mainland
noun
the principal land of a country, region, etc., as distinguished from adjacent islands or a peninsula.
mainlands
-
pluralof mainland.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The marsupials of Australia, the finches on the Galápagos, and many species on the Hawaiian Islands are all unique to their one point of origin, yet they display distant relationships to ancestral species on mainlands.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Zoologists provide evidence that fewer animal species live on islands than on nearby mainlands.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
The Berlin-based ethnographer Alexa Clay, who studied change agents in her book, “The Misfit Economy,” talks about mainlands, islands and peninsulas.
From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2016
Almost all fishing is now carried out at the surface or on the bottoms of the continental shelves that jut from the world's mainlands.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the usual experience of archaeologists, inventions are supposed to flow from mainlands to islands, and small peripheral societies aren’t supposed to contribute revolutionary advances to the rest of the world.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
